Aversion House
by AmberAutopsy
Summary: From the moment Violet was dropped on the convents stairs in the middle of the night they knew there was something off about her...
1. Chapter 1

"Okay, Violet." the woman said, setting her recorder down on her shiny black metal desk, its soft whirring causing it to sputter out of her hand. "Just...tell me whatever you remember."

I was silent as I watched her put a piece of coffee soaked paper under her recorder to stop the sputtering.

"You are stupid." I said bluntly and rather out of the blue, causing her head to jerk up and look at me through curious, slightly offended eyes.

"How am I stupid." This wasn`t a question.

She was belittling me, trying to trick me into spilling my whole life at her sensible shoe`d feet. Sweeping a hand at the paper, I collected myself.

"The paper." I said simply. " You are stupid for allowing your disgusting coffee to spill all over its blank surface." I said, looking into her eyes again. "For all you know it could have held the potential to be something amazing. But, of course, In your hands it would be impossible. You`d just turn it into some sort of monster like you think I am, taking down all your 'notes' as you call them."

She tilted her head at me, a small smile playing at the corners of her rather thin lipped mouth.

"You are very good with words, Violet."

I wrinkled my nose and looked away, towards the barred window that stood a few feet away from my chair.

"I dont remember much, but from what I`m told, I was a very difficult child." I said, ignoring her compliment and getting back onto subject. Out of the corner of my eye I saw her shake her head, some of her blonde hair falling from her barrett and down the sides of her face.

"I want to know what YOU remember." She clarified, her words slow and measured, like I was stupid. I looked back at her through narrowed eyes.

"Like I said, I don`t remember much. I do remember being very unhappy though." The chains around my wrists and ankles clanked together as I shifted slightly, leaning across the table towards her,making her lean back slightly. "I loved playing with the other kids."

"The Nuns who took care of you said that you used to," here she paused to look down at her notes that where tucked away on her lap out of my view. "that you used to...torment the other kids relentlessly. They said you had no friends expect this invisible little boy named Thaddeus." she looked up at me. "Who was Thaddeus, Violet." I smiled and looked up at her through my eyelashes.

"I suppose you want me to say he`s the little voice inside my head that tells me to do_ all the bad things_, don`t you, ." I sighed and sat back in my chair, mindlessly spinning a pen that had fallen from her bag and slid over to me. "He was just an imaginary friend."

"Do you still see him, Violet? Is he here now?" her voice took on that slow, exaggerated tone again as she spoke. I snorted and threw my head like a horse, shoving the pen across the table at her.

"I am not nine anymore, Mrs. Montgomery." my eyes narrowed as I spoke. "He went away to where all good little imaginary freaks go. To another sniffling little shit." she took the hint and changed the subject, once again looking down at her lap at her hidden notes.

"Have you thought about your parents lately?" she asked and I clenched my jaw in response.

"Why would I think about them?

"Well..." I watched her pat her mess of curly blonde hair nervously. "They are your parents-"

"_Really_ now?!" I snapped, cutting her off mid sentence. "_IF_ they really _ARE_ my parents why did they dump me at a fucking convent? Huh? If they are my parents why weren`t they there for my first birthday? Or second? or third?" I stopped and took a deep breath. "Do you have any children?" she paused.

"I did...he died." I watched as a weird look rose up in her eyes. I felt a small smirk tug at the corners of my bruised mouth, pulling the sore skin painfully. She had to be the dumbest psycho therapist I had ever encounter thus far. Rule one: never reveal personal information to your patients.

They WILL extort it and use it against you.

"Did it die inside you?" her head snapped up at my words, her sunny personality suddenly dropping off as a dark shadow passed across her eyes like a hand waving in front of a lamp. I felt my smile widen as I leaned closer, my chest pressing against the cool metal of the table. "It did, didn`t it! Or...maybe it`s true what the LOVELY nurses around here have been gossiping about...maybe it was chopped up and delivered to you, causing you to drive your husband crazy from all your sobbing that he actually sewed it back together for you...tell me Mrs. Montgomery...is that true?"

"How did they..."

"A little birdie told them." I sliced the air between us with my hand, fluttering my dirty fingers. She stared at me wide-eyed for a moment as I sat and waited for her to speak. When she didn`t I sighed. "You are very dull when your in shock. I think I want to leave now."

"I..." was all she managed to say. I rolled my eyes and turned my head towards the peeling metal door that stood to my left.

"We are done now." I called to the guard that stood on the other side. I turned back towards her as I heard keys jingling, rattling around in the lock. "If you`ll excuse me...I have some very invasive '_scientific_' tests to be subjected to."

XXXXXXXXXX

I sat in the common area slowly carving small doodles in the wooden table with my thumb nail as I stared out the window, watching as an on coming black car glinted in the dim late afternoon sun, covered with pine needles from the couple dozen or so blue spruces that lined the long winding drive that lead to this place. I remembered when those had been put in so many years ago. The head nurse had made such a big to do about it and about how excited she was that the Doctor had taken her suggestions about making the outside more welcoming.

'Yeah,' I remember thinking. 'make the outside shine so more people will come, but people are still going to dull when they come in here and you suck every original thought and feeling out of them.'

All she wanted was to get into the Doctors pants. And when she finally did she disappeared for a few months, coming back looking gaunt and hopeless. Like the very life had been sucked from her bones. All she did was paddle around the long halls, occasionally yelling at somebody to fix there bed or to flush the small toilet in their room, but her heart never seemed in it anymore.

She was found a couple weeks later hanging in the kitchen from the rafters, her wrists slashed and wads of her own mousy brown hair clenched in her fists. She was replaced with a young, bouncy red head that liked to leave little to the imagination and took pride in making the male patients, and some of the female ones even, drool as she passed. Flipping her curls and looking suggestively at all the old, crinkled doctors that worked in that place.

I narrowed my eyes and refocused on that dusty black car that was now pulling up to the grand, cement staircase that stood outside, a lovely red carpet lining the stairs.

How fitting.

A richly blood red carpet laid out to lead you straight into hell.

I sighed and laid my chin in my palm as my elbow rested on the chess table, my eyes growing heavy as I watched a small, softly built man in a perfectly pressed navy blue suit stepped out of the car and slam the door behind him. My eyes instantly snapped back open as a small glint of metal shone as he adjusted his jacket over his blindingly white shirt, buttoning it once in the middle.

"A gun..." I heard myself mumble.

That guy was a cop.

I scooted my chair noisily across the glossy wooden floor and flopped down, crossing my arms on the window pane, my breath fogging up the cool glass. My eyes watched his every movement, just _waiting_ for him to open that door. Having somebody dropped off by a cop was a very rare thing. As in, the last time a cop was here was when I arrived.

I glued my eyes as he reached for the handle, wetting my chapped lips as he slowly pulled it open, feeling my held breath leave my lungs with an audible whoosh as a blonde head appeared.

"A boy?!" I nearly shouted, standing up, shoving the chair back in the process. Yes, it was a boy. A simple, blonde haired, lanky boy wearing a black hoodie under a long black coat.

I was majorly let down as I watched the cop pull his arms behind his back and fasten handcuffs around his wrists. _THAT_ guy needed a cop to get him here?

He looked like one of those guys that took bugs that had wondered into their house back outside instead of doing the normal thing and slicing their wing off with a knife and leaving them on the hot window sill. I squinted my eyes as he looked up at the window where I stood, his black eyes locking with mine as one of the last few rays of sun streaked across his face, lighting his fair skin up like crystals, a few red droplets and streaks were the only things that held any sort of color on his skin.

'Probably tore his little ketchup packet to far at school.' I thought, snorting and turning away, finding myself face to face with one of the guards chests. I stumbled back in shock, slamming back into the table and causing it to crash loudly to the floor.

I could feel my heart beat slowing as my eyes turned to slits as they rolled over his crude features.

"You`re being disruptive." he said, his voice low and gravelly. I rolled my eyes.

"If you`re talking about the table that was your fault." there was a low rumble in his chest at my words. He reached out a meaty hand and grabbed my hand, my wrist instantly lost in his grasp as he pulled me up against him, my toes barely touching the floor.

"I`m just about sick of your attitude, Violet!" he snarled, his rank breath caressing my face like the unwanted hand that was currently making its way slowly towards my ass.

"How about I slice that rancid tongue right out of your mouth." I hissed back. "You brush your teeth about as much as you shower, don`t you." it wasn`t a question. His frown deepened and he yanked my arm back, making me cry out in pain as I stumbled farward, closer against his body.

"Mind yourself girl." he pulled me back up and shoved me forward. "Your not as tough as your pretty little head thinks you are." I set my jaw and let him lead me out of the common area by my arm towards the spiral stairs that let up stairs to the patients rooms.

If you could even call them rooms.

"Yes," I heard a man say as we passed through the doorway and into the lobby. I saw the cop from before standing with one of the Doctors off to the corner. for being as small of a man that he was his voice certainly carried. "This is the boy."

"What boy?" the Doctor asked, looking, slightly confused, shaking his balding head as he pulled a small spiral notebook from his jackets pocket. "I don`t remember having a new patient arriving today."

"Hey, this is where I was told to take the little monster." the cop said, holding his thin hands up in the air. "He`s your problem now, pal." my eyes skipped over the other heads in the lobby and landed on the boy that was standing almost in the game room, talking quietly to one of the older nurses, his head bowed.

"What..._exactly_ did this boy do?" I heard the doctors voice ask. I felt my ears perk up. I was suddenly very interested.

"He apparently, " here his voice lowered, making me lean forward a little to hear. "took a shot gun to school and shot a few teachers and some students."

"Jesus christ..." the Doctor said. My eyebrows rose, my disappointment lightening slightly at the new information.

"Move!" the guard behind me snarled, giving me a harsh shove in my back, making me trip forward, barely catching myself on the banister. I glanced back at the boy as the man behind me took my elbow again, leading me forward. I caught his eyes once again and staring into those bottomless black depths I still couldn`t see it...

...I didn`t see that certain little..flicker.

XXXXXXXXXX

I sat in the corner of my room, my head bowed, my fingers digging into my skull as I rocked slowly back and forth, staring at the wall opposite of me, my eyes straining in the darkness.

"You`re worthless." the voice in my head said and I set my jaw, grinding my teeth as it echoed.

"No, I`m not." I said, my voice soft, unsure.

"Bullshit." it said again. "Your own parents didn`t even love you. And they were _MADE_ to love you." the voice grew smooth and amused as it taunted me.

"No!" I yelled, dragging my nails down my temples, feeling my skin prickle under my nails.

"Nobody wants you!" it said again. "Your all alone!"

"SHUT UP!" I screamed and threw myself at my bed, reaching under it and dragging out an old shoe box where I hid my things. I flipped open the top and listened to it skid across the floor as I dug through it, pulling out a battered, wrinkled old drawing book and a stub of a pencil with no eraser left and my hand took off with a mind of its own.

I felt hot, salty tears slide down my face, stinging the cuts on my cheeks as I drew, watching the paper grow darker and take on another world as my hand moved. It wasn`t long until the pad fell from my hands and landed on my lap with a light thud. I lowered my eyes and felt my heart sink at what I saw.

It was very simple.

Just one word.

But it still felt like a bullet to the heart.

_ALONE._

I took in a shaky breath and threw it across the room and watched as the pages scattered against the wall, slowly floating to the ground around me. Out of the corner of my eye I saw a shadow move, slinking up to my side silently.

"I told you." It said. I looked over and met the baby blue eyes of a small boy. "You know it too...don`t you."

"Stop it..." my voice quivered.

"Why are you telling me to stop?" he said, turning his blonde head to glance at my unmade bed. "I`m not even really here."

Letting out a defeated sob and fell back, feeling my head crack against the cold cement floor under me. My eyes roamed the yellowing ceiling as my vision went black, the steely smell of blood filling my nose.


	2. Chasing the darkness away

I stepped out of the bathroom, wiping my wet hands on the back of my hospital gown as I looked around, scanning the faces around me. I had woken up this morning to the familiar sounds of machines whirring downstairs in the doctors lab. And it didn`t take a genius to figure out who his latest victim was. The loud clanking vibrating through my floor, shaking my bed violently. The cold clanking of metal instruments echoing down the long, empty halls as screams of pain shattering through the air. I had pulled my pillow over my head and covered my ears, but they still got through. Piercing my ears with their pleas, reminding me just how hopeless we all were here...

...how lonely...

That morning at breakfast everybody pretended not to notice when he walked in.

But it was obvious.

Conversations came to a halt mid sentence, eyes were averted, utensils shifted noisily against the tables. It was always like this when new people came...spent their first night there...nobody knew what to do.

What to say.

But the truth is...there was nothing to say.

What _COULD_ you say? 'Hey...sorry your family sent you off to hell.'?

I spotted his blonde head, ducked over the table he was seated at, the furthest table from the door...the table facing the wall. He was just sitting there staring at his hands. Everybody around him was turned away. Engrossed in whatever heedless thing they were doing. Not even saying one word to him.

I sighed and started over, my palms suddenly sweaty. I wiped them on my skirt as I stepped up to him, slipping silently into the chair next to him. I sat there for a few seconds, waiting for him to look up at least, but he didn`t.

For the first time in...god knows how long...I actually felt bad.

"Hi..."I said, bowing my head trying to catch his eye, but unable to through his through his bangs. "You alive?" he took in a shuttering breath, his head raising slightly, just enough for his black eyes, nothing but little slits, to look up at me. The left was black, from his cheek up to his eyebrow, the white part of his eye red and splotchy. "You had your first session, huh?" his eyebrows pulled together and his nose crinkled.

"What was..." his voice was soft, timid. I looked down. I remembered being that way. I shrugged. "Why...?"

"Because they can?" I said, putting my hands up on the table between us, my bandaged fingers lightly tapping on the chipped surface. "Nobody cares about people in psycho houses. The doctors here can basically do whatever they want. No rules. No consequences "

"God." he said, dropping his head, letting it fall onto his arms that were crossed on the table. I sighed and looked around at all the people staring, their eyes wide, switching between us. I narrowed mine, causing them to scatter. "I can`t take this."

"You`ll be surprised at just how much you find you can handle here." I leaned back, crossing my arms over my chest as he sat up and slumped in his chair, his arms hanging loosely at his sides. "Don`t look so damn down, dude...you only have the rest of your life." I stood and stepped up to his side, raising my hand to place it on his shoulder then, thinking twice, slowly letting it fall back to my side, the defeated look on his face crushing me.

Why was I feeling like this...

...I didn`t care about other people.

All they did was get in the way.

"Hey..." my voice came out soft for some reason, nearly lost amongst the noise in the room. But still, he heard it, tilting his head up, looking up at me through scared eyes. This boy was not a killer. Any idiot could tell that. "...it`ll be okay..." he nodded slowly, unconvinced, and looked back down into his lap, rubbing the coarse tan fabric of his pants haltingly with his palms.

I shook my head as I walked away, my eyebrows once again pulling together.

That boy should not be here.

XXXXXXXXXXXXX

"NO!" I screamed as they pulled me into the doctors lab, towards the brown leather chair. I jerked my body around, trying to free myself from their grasps, but the Morphine they had injected me with was taking effect, making me sleepy...limp...weak. I bit my lip as they pushed me down and started strapping my arms and legs to the chair, fastening my head to the head rest.

"Hello, Violet." I looked to my right and saw the doctor entering, slipping his pen into his jacket pocket. He looked at me through evil black eyes, his bald head shining dimly under the harsh light that hung above my head. "How are you today?"

"Fuck you!" I spat, whipping my head in his direction, feeling my eyes flash. The small grin that was spread across his thin lips spread a little further, making my stomach turn.

"Now, now..." he stopped at my side, pressing a button on the side of the arm rest, making the chair fold back, spreading my body out straight, the skin of my wrists and ankles straining against the tight metal cuffs. "...thats no kind of language for a girl your age..." I felt myself wince as he drew closer, letting me see the bits of food from lunch stuck in his neatly trimmed beard. "How long have you been here, Violet? Almost ten years...am I right?"

"Too long..." he chuckled lightly at my words.

"Yes, yes, yes. But, anyway, in those say ten years, nobody has ever witnessed you talking to any of the other patients...and yet, this very day, a nurse witnessed you talking to the new boy." he said, I squinted my eyes as he pushed the light down, closer towards my face. "Tell me."

"Tell you what?"

"Why now. Why this situation...why him?"

"Why not him?" again, he chuckled.

"Do not speak in rhymes to me, Miss, Harmon." his voice became chilling. I let out a loud cry as he picked up a steel surgery knife from the table beside him and drug it across the skin of my arm, digging deeper and deeper as he spoke. "I don`t like little girls who throw out sarcastic 'witty' comments!" his voice turned into a growl here as he pushed the knife into my arm. I screamed in pain, watching the razor like blade disappear into my body through slitted eyes.

"EAT SHIT YOU CRAZY FUCK!" my voice echoed around the dome shaped room, bouncing off one wall after the other, making it ten times louder then it had originally been. "YOU SAY I`M CRAZY, THAT EVERYBODY HERE IS CRAZY! BUT THE TRUTH IS YOU ARE THE MOST PSYCHOTIC ONE IN THIS FUCKING HOUSE! YOU ARE THE ONE THAT SHOULD BE TIED DOWN AND BEATEN DAY AFTER DAY!" my breath came fast as I ended, my chest heaving up and down, my throat flaming. I stared up at him, seemingly unfazed by my words, until slowly, his eyes turned darker, taking on such an evil shade it was almost like I was looking at the very devil himself. As fast as lightening the fist holding the knife shot up, only to come soaring back down. My mind spun out of control as he sliced my face, smacking my head side to side as he did so.

"Get her done with." he snarled, glancing into my hateful eyes briefly before turning and heading through the thick brown door off in the corner, retreating back into his office. My weary eyes followed the nurses as they bustles around me, bumping occasionally into the chair I was tied to or the several small metal tables scattered around the room. My heart beat hastened as I watched one of the nurses start towards me, an ancient, oxidized speculum in her gloved hand.

"No..." I said when I felt the other nurses clammy hands grasp my mangled cheeks, holding my head completely still. I closed my eyes tight, only to have them pried back open again. NO!" I screamed, but it was useless. I sat, pathetically trying to pry my head from their grasp as they fastened it around my head, slipping the ragged edged hooks under my eyelids, forcing them to stay open. A sharp needle poke in my left eye took me by surprise, causing my body to tense up.

The last thing I heard was my scream...feeling it rip through my throat as I felt their latex covered fingers worming around on my stomach, the cold press of a blade slicing through my skin.

XXXXXXXXXX

I stumbled down the hallway, my hands trailing along the dirty wall beside me for support. As I reached the stairs I bent forward, laying my sweaty forehead against the railing, feeling my legs give way I slid down until I crashed to the floor with a loud clatter, pulling the curtains from the window down with me, casting a dusty glow on our dismal lives. People turned towards me, squinting in the sudden burst of bright light.

I but my lip and swallowed my shame as I reached up an arm, trying to grasp the railing again. I screamed as my side throbbed, the quiet pop of stitches reaching my ears as I pulled my arms against me, rocking back and forth.

'Your pathetic.' the voice in my head said, appearing out of nowhere. 'How sad...useless little Violet can`t even get herself off the floor.'

"Stop..." I said, slamming my eyes shut, covering my face with my hands. "SHUT UP!" I felt tears starting to brim my eyes just as a pair of arms suddenly wrapped around me, pulling me gently to my feet. I felt a small ping of fear run through my body as I turned my head up to see who it was.

Messy blonde hair...pale skin...bottomless black eyes...

...that`s all I saw through my tear blurred vision.

"C`mon." his voice said, quietly. He started leading me slowly up the stairs, his hand laying gingerly against the oozing stitches. "Where`s your room?"

I can`t remember answering, but I must have, because the next thing I knew I was sitting up on my bed, the boy pulling my blood stained gown off me, throwing it uncaringly behind him, placing my blanket over my shoulders as he went to my dresser to get a new one. When he turned he held the standard dull, eggshell colored gown I had been wearing sense I was six. I watched him walk over, slipping his hands into the sleeves.

"Here." he said simply. I narrowed my eyes.

What was with him and the one word things.

"Why are you being this way?" he looked confused as my words.

"What way?"

"Nice." I said, my voice coming out slightly harsher than I had meant it to. "Nobody is nice here. Not unless they want something." his eyebrows pulled together.

"I don`t want anything..." he shook his head slowly, pushing the open dress further towards me as I shivered. "I just want to help..."

"...why...?"

He just shrugged, his eyes searching my face for a moment. "Because you were nice to me earlier." I opened my mouth to speak only to shut it again, finding that I had nothing to say. "Off." his voice said once more, breaking through my thoughts. I realized I had just been sitting there deep in thought in nothing but my underwear and blanket, freezing. "Your cold." I nodded somewhat and dropped the blanket from my shoulders, letting him slip my gown over me and pull my arms through. I looked up at him and I straightened it over my bra. His face was mostly darkened by shadows from my dark room.

"Thanks..." I said, lowering my eyes.

"No problem."

And with that he was gone, shutting the door to my room quietly behind him, pausing only to snap on the small lamp beside him as he left.

I felt a small smile spread across my face at the small gesture.

That night all was quiet.

He chased the darkness away...


	3. Angel with a shotgun

There was a loud bang somewhere in reality, jerking me from my pleasant dreams, rushing over me like cold water.

"VIOLET!" the guards voice yelled as he yanked my door open, letting in the harsh light from the fluorescent bulbs that lined the hallways ceiling.

"Son-of-a-bitch..." I groaned.

I had woken up on my side, my cheek plastered to my pillow with blood that had seeped through the paper thin bandages. My head throbbed as he banged on the door with his wooden baton. I growled and shot up, throwing the small lamp beside my bed at his, missing him by inches as he tilted his head slightly causing it to crash into the wall, shattering into tiny pieces and landing on the floor with tiny tinkling noises.

"You little BITCH!" he growled as he bounded over to my bed, but I was faster. I jumped over my tattered covers and across the room, picking up one of the broken earthenware pieces and held it out, pointing it at him. A small smirk spread across his face. "Well, well. Aren`t we jumpy." I narrowed my eyes. "Get your ass dressed and to breakfast. The Head has an announcement." my eyes followed him as he walked across my room and slammed the door loudly.

I fell against the wall and slowly slid down, landing on my knees. I closed my eyes and took in a staggering breath, letting the piece of lamp fall from my fingers.

I was so tired.

I was always tired.

Reopening my eyes I got to my feet, pulling my sweater from the back of the door and putting it on before yanking the door open. I let out a loud sigh as the pop of the door against the frame echoed down the emptying hall.

It always got fucking stuck.

I started downstairs, only pausing when I heard a small voice behind me.

"Good morning, Violet."

I slowed and looked over my shoulder, seeing Addy walking a few steps behind me. I let out a small snort and turned back around, uninterested.

That girl had to be the strangest person in that place.

She would talk constantly about this house. That`s only thing she`d talk about, saying that anybody who lived there either died or went insane. And, when she wasn`t running somebody`s ear off about that she was staring out one of the windows in the game room, rocking slowly back and forth saying something that I always thought sounded like 'You`re going to regret it.'

XXXXXXXXXX

I looked up from the 'breakfast' that was smeared across my tray at the sound of a chair pulling out from my table, it`s feet screeching loudly against the crudely tiled floor. I watched the blonde haired boy flop down into the chair before me, sighing tiredly. I glanced around the filling cafeteria, counting.

There were four free tables...

...he still sat at mine.

I felt my belly start to tingle as I looked up through my hair at him, rolling my gaze over his profile as he stared to the side at the podium set up on the small stage by the double kitchen doors. I cleared my throat, looking back down at my tray.

"Good morning..." I said, pushing my food around with my fork, drawing a mindless pattern. Out of the corner of my eye I saw his jaw clench.

"If you can call it that." he replied curtly. I heard a flick of a lighter, the dull thud of a pack of cigarettes landing on the table and looked back up at him, feeling my breath leaving my lungs with a loud gust. For somebody who had been here almost a good week...he was flawless.

His fair skin seemed to glow in the dirty light that streamed through the window behind me, casting a halo like shine off his greasy golden hair. His slight lips were in no way lacking and the most appetizing shade of pink I had ever seen.

His black eyes turned and locked on mine and I snapped my head into profile, my eyes glued forward.

"I can`t look that bad..." he heard a smile in his voice as he spoke. I looked at him through the corner of my eyes and saw his eyes had turned away and were now looking down at his lap, a feeble smile barely visible until his bent head turned up and he looked straight at me.

Really looking at me for the first time.

As he took in my wilted and abused features his smile never faltered. His eyes were gentle as they roamed my face, caressing over the plains and crevasses of my bones.

"You on the other hand..." he trailed off, his smile widening a bit. I left the corners of my mouth turn up, wobbling a bit from the unusual feeling.

"Shut up." I mumbled, looking back down at my tray. A small chuckle floated up to my ears, causing my belly to, once again, start to tingle.

He suddenly spoke, his voice firm as he picked up on a topic right out of the blue.

"You asked me last night why I was being so nice to you...I wasn`t completely honest..." I looked up at his pause, his eyes narrowed and his nose scrunched as he searched for the right words. "Yes, part of it _was_ because you were nice to me but...I don`t know...you were just the first person who seemed to care." here he shrugged, pulling his ink stained hands onto the table between us. "This may sound corny but...that day when you said that I`ll be surprise at how much I can handle...and then seeing you come out like that-" he cut off and pinched the bridge of his nose with his thumb and forefinger. "It made me believe what..you DIDN`T say...understand?" I felt myself slowly shake my head, my eyes jetting out to my right then back to his face.

"I have no clue..." he sighed, looking at me through red rimmed , sleepless eyes.

"If you had only said what you did...I wouldn`t have believed...but when I saw you looking at mangled and half dead I realized it was true...you made me believe."

I let out a short laugh.

"You make it sound like were in an after school special."

His eyes remained deathly sober.

"I`m serious..." he said. "If that hadn`t happened...I don`t think I would still be here." I felt my eyes soften for a split second before I looked down again, trying to bring back my cool demeanor.

"Yeah." I shook my head. "They wouldn`t have let you kill yourself anyway. Their always watching." I looked up and gestured to the guards strolling casually around the room, kicking patients chairs as they passed,making them tumble loudly to the ground.

Just to be the assholes that they were.

"I kinda figured..."

"No...I mean they are ALWAYS watching you. You can`t even take a shit without them knowing about it." I leaned in. "Some patients say that when their on lawn duty they even see them rooting around in the waste containers when people vomit. To see if they had taken any...unauthorized pills." his eyes were wide, his mouth distorted into a disgusted way.

"Seriously?" I shrugged.

"I don`t know...it`s all he said, she said." I sat back, the back rest of my chair groan under my weight. "But I wouldn`t put it passed them."

"No shit."

I stared up at the ceiling as we grew quiet, watching the grimy ceiling fan turn sluggishly, weighed down by all the smoke and dirt that had collected on it from years of it not being cleaned. It was lulling me into a false sense of sleep, letting me escape into my mind, into the beautiful images of the freedom I had never known...

...only to be drawn out by a voice.

And for once I didn`t mind.

"My names Tate, " the boy across from my said, and I looked back down at him. "Tate Langdon."

"Good morning." I heard the Doctors voice said, interrupting my impending response. He clasped his hands together and smiled a smiled I had seen many time over the years, and have never like. "We have a new venture for you all to take part in..." at this his dark eyes shifted towards me, taking on a evilly giddy look.

It made me sick.

I looked back at the blonde boy...at Tate, and looking at him right then, his pale cheeks holding a slight pink flush, his messy golden halo of hair falling into his black, reddened, swollen eyes from tears shed all through the night, the same few words echoed in my head.

Just one paragraph.

Just one.

And it fit him so well.

That spark I didn`t see before...that little twinkle in his eyes...I saw it then as he looked up at the 'great' doctor. Bloodlust oozing from him with such intensity I felt my heart speed up.

_'THE DEVIL IS REAL. AND HE`S NOT A LITTLE RED MAN WITH HORNS AND A TAIL. HE CAN BE BEAUTIFUL. BECAUSE HE IS A FALLEN ANGEL. AND HE USED TO BE GODS FAVORITE._

Was I feeling...?

What was I feeling?

XXXXXXXXXXXX


	4. The Elsewhere

"You don`t have to push!" I snarled as I was shoved up against a tall metal door, the solitary object inside a part of the hospital I had never seen before.

I brushed my skirt off as I righted myself, looking around the small, dimly lit room, fly`s and moths buzzing around the single light that hung from the low ceiling, fitted skillfully between the deep cracks.

"Come here." the guard said, his deep voice vibrating against the stillness that hung around us. I watched him flick one of of thick hands towards the nurse who then proceeded to heave open the the giant door, the room suddenly flooded with a kind of brightness that seemed to warm my very soul.

Sun light.

"Oh my god..." I heard myself breathe as I stared out onto the landscape that had appeared before me.

The crisp green grass.

The rolling hills covered in flowers that swayed back and forth lazily in the breeze.

The sky that seemed to go on and on for miles...

"Get moving!" the guard yelled, shoving my bandaged shoulder. I cringed lightly as pain radiated down my arm and through my side, but then...

Right at that moment...

I was too far gone to care.

I treaded carefully once I regained my balance, almost as if I was scared that one false step, the slightest stumble, would shatter the beautiful image before me.

The door slammed loudly as soon as I had passed through, watching my dirty feet step slowly down onto the cool grass, feeling it crunch down under my weight.

With one low strangled laugh I dropped to my knees, running my hands over the ground, skimming the soft dirt with my finger tips as my face turned towards the sky, my eyes closed tight as hot tears rolling over my cheeks.

Yes, the thought DID cross my mind that maybe all this beauty was suddenly going to turn into a huge disaster but...in a world with very little happiness...

...I needed at least ONE moment.

One moment of joy.

I`m not sure how long I was kneeling there, but suddenly I was a few feet away on my back, staring up at the cotton white clouds trying to pick out animals or people, relishing in the light breeze that blew across my face.

I slowly let my heavy eyes stray from the clouds, landing a few feet away, blonde hair and a sweet smile filling my vision.  
"You`re here too."

My eyes snapped wide, everything losing it`s fuzzy halo of happiness, turning harshly clear.

"Tate!" I said, bolting up to my feet. "What-"

My words were cut off by the screech of a far off intercom, scratching on like nails against a chalk board.

"Shit!" Tate snarled, clasping his hands over his ears. I shifted my eyes away, searching for the source of the horrible sound.

A glint high up in one of the trees caught my eye.

"Hello, children."

'Oh no.'

"What? Do you not like the world I made for you?"

His black laugh surrounded us as our eyes met from where we stood side by side, the once cool breeze that blew suddenly turning cold, the lush ground under our feet iced over sending the frozen finger of fear slithering up my spine.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx


End file.
